Method for communicating in a network, a system and a primary station therefor

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system comprising at least one primary station and at least one secondary station, wherein the primary station comprises communication means for communicating with the secondary station in accordance with a first protocol, wherein the communication means are arranged for communicating with a plurality of further stations in accordance with a further protocol, and wherein the primary station comprises control means for generating a message to be broadcast to the secondary station, said message comprising purposely erroneous information causing the at least one secondary station to remain silent for a predetermined duration.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. A system comprising
 at least one primary station and 
 at least one secondary station, 
 wherein the at least one primary station comprises
 communication means for communicating with the at least one secondary station in accordance with a first protocol, wherein the communication means are arranged for communicating with a plurality of further stations in accordance with a further protocol, and wherein the primary station comprises 
 control means for generating a message to be broadcast to the secondary station, said message comprising purposely erroneous information, said information comprising an erroneous data length in a header field causing the at least one secondary station to remain silent for a predetermined duration. 
 
 
     
     
       2. The system of  claim 1  wherein the further stations are arranged for communicating with one another during the predetermined duration in accordance with the further protocol. 
     
     
       3. The system of  claim 1 , wherein the message is a data packet and wherein the erroneous information comprises the length of the data packet. 
     
     
       4. The system of  claim 1 , wherein the message is a beacon indicating the beginning of a contention free period, and wherein the erroneous information comprises the length of the contention free period. 
     
     
       5. The system of  claim 1 , wherein the message is a Ready to Send message indicating that the primary station is scheduling a data transmission to a secondary station, and wherein the erroneous information comprises a non-valid secondary station address. 
     
     
       6. The system of  claim 1 , wherein the control means of the primary station are arranged to generate the message in response to arrival of data to be transmitted to at least one of the further stations. 
     
     
       7. The system of  claim 1 , wherein the further protocol is a wireless ad hoc network protocol. 
     
     
       8. The system of  claim 1 , wherein the first protocol is a wireless local area network. 
     
     
       9. A method for communicating in a network comprising at least one primary station and at least one secondary station, wherein the at least one primary station communicates with the secondary station in accordance with a first protocol, wherein the at least one primary station communicates with a plurality of further stations in accordance with a further protocol, and said method comprising
 generating a message to be broadcast to the secondary station, said message comprising purposely erroneous information, said information comprising an erroneous data length in a header field causing the at least one secondary station to remain silent for a predetermined duration. 
 
     
     
       10. A primary station for communicating within a network comprising at least one secondary station,
 wherein the primary station comprises
 communication means for communicating with the at least one secondary station in accordance with a first protocol, wherein the communication means are arranged for communicating with a plurality of further stations in accordance with a further protocol, and wherein the primary station comprises 
 control means for generating a message to be broadcast to the at least one secondary station, said message comprising purposely erroneous information, said information comprising an erroneous data length in a header field causing the at least one secondary station to remain silent for a predetermined duration.